Author's Note: Okay, so this is my first Doctor Who story. Ever. And this is the one franchise that I almost refuse to write for because I get nervous when I write it because I want it to be perfect and as good as an actual Doctor Who story. But anyway, I decided to write for the Third Doctor, one of my favourite Classic Doctors because me and my friend were writing Doctor Who stories of a Doctor of our choice. So, I've only seen two Third Doctor stories (Spearhead From Space and The Sea Devils,) so the characterization of Three might not be pretty good, but I tried. So sit through this...whatever this is.
I
As the TARDIS launched into the Time Vortex, the Third Doctor turned off the monitor and sighed deeply. Ever since the Time Lords let him out of his exile, he's been bouncing everywhere, and it was starting to make him tired. He dropped off Jo Grant with the Brigadier and UNIT so she could take a break, and he jumped planet from planet since then, examining civilizations he hadn't seen before.
After patting the console, he began to walk over to the door in the back that led to the rest of the machine. He figured it would be a fine time to settle in the library and read a book, and although he was unsure of what to read, he knew he would get the idea in his head as soon as he browsed. He opened the door and walked through the halls.
He eventually found the library, and looked around at how vast it was. It contained over 56 million books, and the floor went up so high that when he tried to climb all of them years ago he lost count. He then looks down to the floor, where a large swimming pool sat. He has rather fond memories of that pool. Susan would always take a dip in it when she felt she needed to think about her school. Ian, Barbara, Stephen, Vicki, Dodo, Ben and Polly also liked it here. Jamie, Victoria and Zoe would sometimes come in while he referenced his 500 Year Diary. Liz only went in once, but she was rather amused of that fact that there was a swimming pool here in the library.
Smiling, The Doctor proceeded to walk up a few flights of the stairs as he remembered a book he never finished reading to be left there. After walking five flights of steps, he found the book he was looking for. However, it was laying on the floor next to the table, the spine nearly broken. He walked over, and examined it, then sighed. "I might need to grab a new copy. Perhaps that's where I will stop next; a library somewhere in the universe that has another printing of this book I can purchase." he muttered to himself, before the floor beneath him started to shake. He got up, dropping the book, when the books started to drop off of the shelves, and the TARDIS began to shake violently. The Doctor proceeded to run down the stairs, occasionally crashing into the walls, and ran out of the library and from the halls to the main console room, where it was shaking most. He pulled levers and pushed several buttons, and the TARDIS was able to barely stop shaking briefly.
He turned on the monitor, to see that he was in a field of asteroids. "How did I get here? I was flying in the Time Vortex, I did not change the course to an asteroid belt." he wondered out loud, before the TARDIS began to shake again, but this time it didn't feel like it was being hit by anything at all. The large pillar on the console began to race up and down, and the TARDIS was making a struggling sound, before the monitor flashed a bright purple light, and the pillar stopped shaking, and the whirr of the engines stopped. During that time, The Doctor was knocked over, and he laid on the floor, and briefly got up. The only sounds he could hear were the small hymn of the TARDIS and his breath. He was unsure of what caused the TARDIS to land; perhaps he was pulled out by some outside force? But how could they pull the TARDIS straight out of the Vortex into where they want it to go? With a stern face, he flicked the switch on the console that opened the TARDIS doors, grabbed his coat, put it on, and walked out of the TARDIS.
The TARDIS landed on one of the large asteroids, and the rocky surface shook under him. It moved at an alarming speed with the other asteroids there, and he was worried he might fall off. He closed the doors, before turnnig around to see a large spaceship sit right in the middle of where the asteroid was.
II
"Sir, we have made contact with a vehicle."
"Is it Time Lord tech?"
"That's what the scanner reads."
"Good."
Sargent Gregory sat in his seat and smiled. He had been seeking for his entire life to find the Time Lord who destroyed his planet when he was only two years old. In the chaos, half of the population were able to get out, however, but the other half were also a great loss. He's always wanted to find out who did this and punish him.
To do this, he searched galaxy by galaxy looking for technology that could find a Time Lord machine and snatch it from anywhere he wanted within a certain radius. Recently, he learned how to expand this by learning how to retrieve something from the Time Vortex, where Time Lords tend to be, and how to catch it when it hits the direct point of his current time in that very Vortex.
He got up. "Ryan, I need you to call out two soldiers to investigate whom we retrieved." "Yes, sir." The assistant named Ryan who operated the machinery at the cockpit spoke into a microphone. "Soldiers 34578012 and 18640324, please report outside of the transport to retrieve the stranger outside." A faint "Yes, sir." erupted from the other end of the speaker.
"Ryan?" "Yes, sir?" "I think we found him." "Do you know what he looks like, sir?" "The 'Time Lord' that did this to my planet was dressed in black, had gloves, everything. He looked like Moriarty from those Sherlock Holmes books you like so much." Ryan nodded. "Right, sir."
III
The Doctor watched as two soldiers dressed in special armour walked out of the ship, and walked toward him cautiously with their rifles pointed to him. He walked to them. "Can I help you?" "Put your hands on your knees and hands in the air. We are going to take you to our ship." "Well there's no need to be so rude, is there?" "Sir, please follow our orders, or we will be forced to shoot." "Very well. I do say, there's no need to handcuff me, is there, officers?" "I am afraid we must stun you." "Sorry?" The soldier to the right pointed his rifle to The Doctor, set it to stun, but before he pulled the trigger, The Doctor yelled out a loud "Hiya!" and chopped the gun out of his hands, and before the other soldier could react, he kicked the soldier's helmet, and he fell down, however slowly due to the low gravity the spaceship produced on the asterioid. "I do apologize." he said, and picked up the rifles they dropped, before one of the soldiers got up and slammed him in the head. He fell down, unconscious, as the soldier and the other soldier got up and dragged him to the ship.
IV
The door to the bridge of the spaceship opened, and the soldiers dragged the unconscious body of the Doctor inside. Gregory looked to them, and his eyes widened. "Sir, we had to capture the man by force." "What?! No! You know we do not capture by force unless you're provoked!" "We were provoked, sir." "Ugh... Whatever, just go back to the barracks in the back of the ship." "Yes, sir."
The two soldiers ran off, and Gregory examined The Doctor. He didn't even look like the Time Lord he was looking for! Disappointed, Gregory walked to his seat and kicked it. He was disappointed he didn't find who he was looking for, and angry at the fact his soldiers fought the man, even if he did fight back. He could've handled it if that man got into the ship. He heard groaning behind him, then turned around. "Ryan." "Yes, sir?" "Please go into the other room. I want to talk with this man privately." "Yes sir." Ryan got up from the cockpit and walked into the interior of the ship, and Gregory walked to the waking Doctor.
"Who are you?" he asked, and The Doctor got up to one knee and looked up. "I'm The Doctor." "You're not who I'm looking for." The Doctor stood up and looked to him. "Who are you looking for?" "A Time Lord, but you look nothing like him." "Another Time Lord? I would say that's not unusual." "This one destroyed my planet."
The Doctor's face grew stern, and a suspicion of whom it was came to mind. "What did he look like?" "Huh?" "The Time Lord. What did he look like?" "He...he had a beard. White streaks in it. Slicked back hair, a black suit, gloves. I remember him so vividly, I can't understand it..." The Doctor sighed. "The Master." Gregory turned to him, his eyes widened furiously. "What?!" "You're talking about The Master, he's an evil Time Lord that I've known since I was a boy." "You're affiliated with this man?!" "As a rival."
Gregory didn't know what to feel at this point. He finally knew the Time Lord's name, but he was unsure of what to think as to the Doctor's affiliation with him. Then he thought of something. He turned to the Doctor. "So... you know where this man is?" "As of the moment, no. But he will eventually show up again, I'm sure." "In that case..."
Gregory walked to the cockpit, and turned on the microphone. "Soldier 46575850. Report to duty in the bridge." A faint "affirmative" erupted from the speaker, and a soldier walked in almost immediately. "Take this man to the cells. He will guide us to our target." "Yes, sir." The Doctor looked to Gregory. "What makes you think I am able to locate The Master?" "You said you've known him. I think you're exactly who we need."
The Doctor's face grew angered as the soldier walked him to the cells.
V
The Doctor was taken into the cell, and the soldier stood at this entrance. "The entrance is locked and the cell video-monitored, so don't think of trying anything stupid." the soldier closed the door, and The Doctor walked to the edge of the room and sat. "I don't have anything else better to do, so I might as well just sit in here." he said out loud, and he looked around for the camera, before spotting a small flashing red light at the top of the ceiling. Immediately, the Doctor thought of a plan. He put his hands behind his back, and closed his eyes, and fake snored to look as if he was asleep for the camera. But, while doing so, he reached around his back for his sonic screwdriver. He was able to reach it at the back of his coat, and he slowly slid his arm down, and pointed the tip toward the camera. As he pressed the button and the screwdriver whirred, the camera burst with sparks, and The Doctor got up quickly.
There was only a short time he calculated to get out of the ship before they realize he escaped. He pointed the screwdriver at the door, turned it on, and the door unlocked, and he quietly slipped out. As soon as he steps out, he hears footsteps walk to his direction, and he slips away down the hall, and hides behind one of the walls, as two soldiers walk by. They must not have seen the slightly opened door, The Doctor thought, as he quietly tip-toed down the hall. It was after a minute before he saw a camera facing the other way of the hall did he realize there were few, but scattered cameras around the ship. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, then held it to the air, and let it whir, as the camera ahead of him burst in sparks as he heard others as well burst. "I am sorry, but we are experiencing technical difficulties with out surveillance systems as of the moment, please disregard and return to your duties." a voice out of the few speakers in the hall erupted. Realizing this set-back of the machines would be temporary, The Doctor raced down the hall as quietly as possible, trying to find a plausible exit. The TARDIS forcefields were the only thing sustaining the oxygen outside on the asteroid from there, but he was too far from the TARDIS at that point, so he realized he would need an air system, so he thought of a plan.
He hid behind the next wall from another hall he saw, and waited for the next soldier to walk by. Luckily, one walked by after a few minutes, and he jumped out of the shadows, grabbed him, and threw him to the dark hallway he was hiding in. He used his martial art skills to knock the soldier out, and he stripped the soldier of his armour and put it on. Now disguised as a soldier, the Doctor marched down the hall with the screwdriver in his coat underneath the armour, and rifle in hand. He turned behind him after a minute and walked down, remembering that the ship must have escape pods. And after a long time of walking, The Doctor found the room labeled "Pods" on its door. After looking around, and seeing no cameras in sight, he walked in through the automatic door, and examined the pods. There were about six pods each in three rows. He walked to the one nearest the back, and activated it. It flew off, and there was a small force of wind as it shot off into the distance of asteroids and crashed, exploding the asteroid it hit and the pod as well into several smaller pieces. Alarms sounded behind him, so he jumped out as the wall behind him in the spaceship closed.
He was flown to the right of the asteroid due to the sudden increase of wind, and he fell down to the ground. At that speed, without the armour he was supplied with he would've broke a bone of some sort, but the suit protected him from any injury he might've sustained. He threw the rifle to the ground and ran to the TARDIS, which he spotted ahead. Soldiers behind from the spaceship raced out, and set their guns to the 'lethal' setting, and proceeded to shoot at the Doctor. He was able to dodge the laser shots that sprung out of their gun barrels, and he raced into the TARDIS, and shut the door.
VI
Gregory watched as the Doctor ran off into his TARDIS on the monitor, and as it made a whirring sound as the light on the top flashed, the dematerialization noise. Ryan turned his chair to him. "The cameras have recently just rebooted. The prisoner's cell has been opened, one of our soldiers has been stripped of his armour and a pod has been activated and taken." Gregory sighed, and sat in his chair. "It was The Doctor. Very well. Set course off of the asteroid belt. We will wait and land, then once again lead one of the Time Lords' machines to us. I will find The Master." "Excuse me, sir?" "What, Ryan?" "'The Master?'" "Yes, I found out that was his name." "Very well, sir." The spaceship hummed as it lifted off into the air, and flew away at high speeds.
The Doctor watched the monitor to make sure the TARDIS once got to the Time Vortex. The first thing he did was to take off the armour that was on him as quickly as he possibly could. He found it rather uncomfortable. As soon as he got it off, he grabbed it all and walked down the TARDIS halls to the wardrobe. He threw the armour into one of the closets of the vast room filled with clothes, and walked out to the console room. He realized he needed to get to Jo and the Brigadier, as long as UNIT as well soon, as he had been taking a break for about a week now, but there was one more task he needed to fulfill before stopping.
He fiddled with the TARDIS controls, and eventually the materialization sound erupted and the pillar in the middle of the TARDIS stopped. The Doctor didn't even bother to look out on the monitor, as he knew exactly where he was.
He stepped out of the TARDIS, and looked out to the city ahead of him, and walked from the alleyway in which he parked. He put his hands on his hips and smiled, then looked to the large library across the road. "Now to find that book I've been looking for!" he announces, as he crosses the road.